Java Tower Defense Suggestion - Solo mode (1v1)

[LeCastel]

Tower Defense Suggestion - Solo mode (1v1)

Together with many, many other players I've been asking about a solo mode for Tower Defense (from now on TD) for a very long time now*. I obviously can't read every single post or message on Discord, but I've never actually seen a member from the Cubecraft team talk about why this isn't on the server already or why it won't happen (etc). So hopefully I can either raise awareness through this post or finally find out the reason(s) as to why it hasn't and isn't going to happen.

Almost 2 years ago there was finally a spark of hope within the TD community that at least some of our biggest grievances would potentially be fixed/changed. The team posted a thread asking for suggestions. The issues that still plague the game were already present back then (and long before) still are in the game today. If you are interested in some of these issues you can read through 2 years of content (just as a huge portion of the threads posted in that category consist out of the same issues and ideas players have wanted for years)!

But back to it:

Why a solo mode?

Short answer: Why not? What would be the harm in it? The game was active enough to survive The Big Change, it still is active enough to play 6v6 matches, 1v1 is actually already possible and fun(!)... so why not make it an actual mode?

1v1 is already possible and fun, you say? Yes, even in the current state the game works just fine (and in my opinion it's even more fun) when I'm fortunate enough to be in a 1v1. This only happens very rarely though. The player count has to be low and everyone but 2 players have to leave early game, but once every blue moon it happens and it's great. This makes me thing that balancing should not be an issue. The game is already playable and fun in 1v1 matches. It shouldn't require reworking the game.

Anyone who plays TD probably is well aware how having team members can make, but also completely break, the experience. I don't think there is a single other mode in the game that makes it as easy to grief as TD does - both intentionally as well as unintentional. Players don't know what to do and place towers in wrong locations, fail to understand to place towers on the grid, don't have paths unlocked and no one in the team can help them with upgrading to a path (counterintuitive design for a team game in my opinion, but that's besides the point for today). My first action is to ask them to change or remove a tower with a short explanation why, to hopefully teach the player a little bit about the game. Sadly this doesn't work on everyone. Some players might not look at their chat, have the chat disabled, don't care or see it as a reason to do even more harm to the team for the sake of it.

It doesn't help that Cubecraft has removed the tutorial they once had. The mode is incredibly fun, but only if you know what you are doing.

Right now the game can sometimes take a long time, which also leads to players leaving. You can end up alone vs a team of 6 people... and the game does nothing to detect or counter this. It isn't even that hard alone, but because you still have the same wait times in between using potions you can never defend against a 6 man rush with just 1 freeze potions every 12 seconds, while they are able to throw 6 times as many speed. Now, I don't know how you can combat that issue in a fair way... but I do know a solo mode would prevent this

And as other games on the server show: a game can both have a healthy solo and team playerbase.

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* https://www.cubecraft.net/search/287486/?q=solo&t=post&c[child_nodes]=1&c[nodes][0]=58&o=relevance &
https://www.cubecraft.net/search/28...t&c[child_nodes]=1&c[nodes][0]=58&o=relevance

 

[EggCracker12]

i dissagree i think what cube craft are doing now (which is promoting more team modes and slowly neglecting solo game modes, thats why they made the bridge game 5v5 instead of 1v1 and wont add the 1v1) is very good because we want to be seen as a community server not a loner server where youngsters cant make friends
i think td should stay team mode and never have solo mode
also solo mode means there would be more maps loaded which would cause a lot of lag
also 1v1 mode means people can join parties with an alternit account and then do /p leave and /leave and they can farm wins like that which is unfair to people who get wins through 6 v 6

 

[LeCastel]

i dissagree i think what cube craft are doing now (which is promoting more team modes and slowly neglecting solo game modes, thats why they made the bridge game 5v5 instead of 1v1 and wont add the 1v1) is very good because we want to be seen as a community server not a loner server where youngsters cant make friends
i think td should stay team mode and never have solo mode

I did think about that, yes. But I don't see how 1 extra solo mode would really change that. I'm not advocating to have the 6v6 mode removed. Like you said, there already is a focus on team games. This would only be the second 1v1 game (to my knowledge) on the server. Other games with a solo mode (Solo Eggwars, Skywars, Lucky Blocks, Minerware) still have a community surrounding it where you can make friends and find people to party up with.

also solo mode means there would be more maps loaded which would cause a lot of lag

Didn't think about that. Seems like a reasonable point, could very well be one of the reasons why it isn't on the server.

also 1v1 mode means people can join parties with an alternit account and then do /p leave and /leave and they can farm wins like that which is unfair to people who get wins through 6 v 6

The same goes for PvP duels. I think an easy solution would be to not count wins in parties. Maybe that's how they already do it for duels? Not sure though. And the stats and leaderboards would be unique to the 1v1 mode, just like other games have them seperated for the solo and team modes.

 

[Gemmmmie]

I don't play Tower Defence regularly but with all your points suggested it seems like a pretty well thought out idea. I assume the maps would defiantly be smaller, as well as many other factors, since there is only 1 person on a team? Overall, most gamemodes do have a Solo option so it is only fair that TD has the option too. I sadly can't really add much more to this great thread due to my lack of knowledge of the gamemode. However, it's a yes from me!

 

[EggCracker12]

I did think about that, yes. But I don't see how 1 extra solo mode would really change that. I'm not advocating to have the 6v6 mode removed. Like you said, there already is a focus on team games. This would only be the second 1v1 game (to my knowledge) on the server. Other games with a solo mode (Solo Eggwars, Skywars, Lucky Blocks, Minerware) still have a community surrounding it where you can make friends and find people to party up with.

Didn't think about that. Seems like a reasonable point, could very well be one of the reasons why it isn't on the server.

The same goes for PvP duels. I think an easy solution would be to not count wins in parties. Maybe that's how they already do it for duels? Not sure though. And the stats and leaderboards would be unique to the 1v1 mode, just like other games have them seperated for the solo and team modes.

true but people still farm duels with each other or use alt accounts
the difference is that tower defence gives a lot more poinst and exp than duels does so it would be too OP i think

 

[Shotgun]

Anyone who plays TD probably is well aware how having team members can make, but also completely break, the experience. I don't think there is a single other mode in the game that makes it as easy to grief as TD does - both intentionally as well as unintentional. Players don't know what to do and place towers in wrong locations, fail to understand to place towers on the grid, don't have paths unlocked and no one in the team can help them with upgrading to a path (counterintuitive design for a team game in my opinion, but that's besides the point for today).

It doesn't help that Cubecraft has removed the tutorial they once had. The mode is incredibly fun, but only if you know what you are doing.

This issue has already been discussed with the admins of CubeCraft. They are well aware of the issues. At the Community Talk a few weeks ago Tower Clipping/Snapping, a tutorial and the "Chosen when Placed" solutions were the most popular and they are probably looking for ways how to implement these solutions.

Spoiler: Chosen when Placed

A player can choose the path when the tower is placed, rather than when upgrading.

More about the Community Talk can be found here. And an elaborated version of the meeting notes is attached to this post.

You can end up alone vs a team of 6 people... and the game does nothing to detect or counter this. It isn't even that hard alone, but because you still have the same wait times in between using potions you can never defend against a 6 man rush with just 1 freeze potions every 12 seconds, while they are able to throw 6 times as many speed. Now, I don't know how you can combat that issue in a fair way...

This has also been discussed in the Community Talk and I'm sure the CubeCraft team is searching for solutions as we speak.

This was only answering to some of your complaints, now my opinion on solo mode:

I think the game was meant to be a team game. For competition the most known game is Bloons TD Battles and one of the reasons I choose this game above it is because this game is a team game. Being able to play Tower Defence this way is unique and even more when playing in a team. I do think it would be more enjoyable with slightly smaller teams, maybe 4v4 or 5v5. If you really wanna have even smaller teams I'd rather go for a 2v2 game.

I also don't agree with the game being just fine for 1v1. The game is just imbalanced the way it is right now, so in 1v1 it stays the same.

If there would be a mode with smaller teams I think it'd be benificial to change things like being able to send more troops, decreased potion cooldown and more income.